The Future of Flexible Work: The Hybrid. The Remote. The 4-Day Week

How we work has changed dramatically in the last few years – from remote work becoming more common to “quiet quitting” and return-to-office mandates.

Now, what the last four years have taught us is that employees value flexibility. Flexible work has two distinct dimensions: location and time, and we’ll go into the details very soon while looking at some interesting data as well.

So, in this article, we will navigate the workplace trends that shaped the past four years and the trends that will shape the near future.

And a side note: when I’m speaking about remote and hybrid work, I’m referring to jobs that can be performed in a home setup. Read this guide first on working remotely.

Let’s roll.

WFH arrangements: hybrid work and remote work

The pandemic changed how people see hybrid and remote work. Before 2020, working from home was a rare perk, but since then, it has become crucial to how many of us work. According to WFH Research, going to the office daily with set schedules is no longer the norm.

Based on one estimate, about 5% of work days were fully remote in 2018.

The Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (SWAA) shows that as of March 2021, about 45% of employees supplied paid labor services from home (US data).

Fast forward to 2023, and the percentage stabilized around 30% because more and more companies are pushing for a partial return to office.

Now, when it comes to working from home, there are some clashes among employees and employers.

WFH research shows that there are gaps between employees’ wishes when it comes to working-from-home arrangements and the actual work policies:

• 18% of employees rarely or never want to work from home.
• 32.8% of employees have 0 days of working from home.

Many business leaders do not trust work-from-home arrangements and are pushing for at least three days in the office per week, as we’ve seen in 2023’s return-to-office mandates.

What are the reasons for the gap?

Let’s comment a bit on the employers’ reasoning.

1. Some studies suggest that the sense of belonging to a company may decrease without physical presence.

Speaking of belonging, some data proves there might be a correlation between the sense of belonging and physical presence. But let’s not forget that belonging is more about communication, values, culture, and priorities.

2. There’s a belief that many professionals learn their jobs best through an apprenticeship model, and this is challenging to replicate in a virtual setting.

Is it really hard to replicate apprenticeship in a virtual setting?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever done a course online!

Personally, I did HTML, CSS, Javascript, photography, Spanish, and Italian classes online…

Nowadays, people can enroll in online universities and MBA studies….

So, does this argument stand?

3. Employers fear a potential drop in productivity outside the office environment.

Now, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the productivity question. It varies based on the job type, distractions (like office noise or kids playing in the room), and the individual’s work style. Someone responsible in the office might also be accountable outside of it. The same applies to those who seem to be working in the office but may not be truly productive, right?

For every study showing that employees are more productive working from home, another study shows the opposite.

Who to trust?

Well, proper team management, task management, and communication can solve the problem.

Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.

Maybe we should not ask, “Are employees who work from home less productive?”

Maybe we should be asking, “How can we help our employees who work from home do their best work their best?”

4. Some executives believe that observing others’ work can lead to “goal contagion,” reinforcing shared goals in the workplace.

In psychology, this is called the “mere exposure effect,” and it supports the idea that increased exposure fosters positive assumptions, such as the belief that individuals work harder.

Goal contagion is a concept that was recently defined. It refers to the automatic adoption and pursuit of the perceived goals of others ( 2004). The phenomenon of goal contagion is unconscious and spontaneous; that is, the individual’s speculation about another’s goal is unconscious, and the individual puts the other’s goal into his or her own action spontaneously.

Close relationships can influence goal setting, goal pursuit, and goal satiation for each type of goal. Now, “close relationships” might be the key here. And in such relationships, space and borders can vanish, right?

This is a complex theory to prove in the workplace, and a study must be performed before admitting to anything.

5. Many companies invested significantly in offices and campuses, and with these spaces now underutilized, employers feel they are losing their investment.

Yes, this is a painful truth for many business owners. But this reason is not enough to get people back to their offices.

6. Certain managers think they have more control over the company’s happenings when they can physically see their employees.

To be successful, teams (remote or not) require less oversight, not more.

This is something managers should work out for themselves, and yes, change is difficult and might not even occur. In hybrid and remote environments, both employees and managers need some reskilling to adapt. And it’s a risky business as well because such work environments could reveal some weaknesses we weren’t aware of (lack of flexibility, etc.).

7. The belief that workplace collaboration enhances creativity is another reason cited by many executives.

There are many studies out there that have reached the same conclusion: virtual meetings can hurt creativity.

A Stanford laboratory experiment divided teams into in-person and online collaboration settings. The in-person teams generated 15% to 20% more ideas than their virtual counterparts. Similarly, a separate experiment with nearly 1,500 engineers at a multinational corporation revealed that in-person teams produced more ideas, and these ideas received higher ratings for originality.

What does this mean for hybrid and remote teams?

Face-to-face interaction is still valuable. This also means that office gatherings can happen with a specific goal in mind: brainstorming, planning, etc.

8. There’s concern about the onboarding and integration of new colleagues into the team, as well as potential decreases in employee engagement in remote and hybrid work arrangements.

Yes, this is a risk. However, it can be overcome if HR managers gear up and refine their processes. Plus, use project management software and resource scheduling tools to keep things organized, digital, and on the cloud.

We’re in this together. We’re learning together. Because, at the end of the day, having distributed teams could bring more benefits to a company than losses.

And yes, there’s a push for a return to office, but the percentage stabilized around 30% of workdays spent at home.

The Value of Flexible Work Schedules

According to the New World of Work survey by Workable, 44.9% of businesses cited flexible work schedules as a major post-COVID outcome.

Here are some examples of flexible schedules:

• An employee starts work at 8:30 a.m. after dropping kids at school. He picks them up at 1 pm, then returns to the office to finish work by 7 pm.
• An employee starts work at 7 a.m. to wrap things up shortly after lunch.
• An employee goes for a swim at 7 a.m., then starts the day at 9 a.m. After 6 hours of work, he resumes the rest at 8 p.m.

Flexible schedules empower employees to do their work when it’s best suited for them. Let’s face it: we are all different, and some of us like to start work early in the day, others thrive mid-afternoon, and others still like to burn the midnight oil because that’s when they’re most productive.

Another Workable survey pointed out that almost 58% of US employees believe that flexible schedules are very important for them.

Why is flexible work important? The survey respondents believe the most significant benefit is that they can better balance their personal and professional priorities.

A survey by Future Forum showed that 95% of people surveyed want flexible hours, compared with 78% of workers who wish for location flexibility. This might be the answer those companies opposing remote work might need.

Flexibility beats remote work.

And yes, flexible working hours can pose challenges in terms of productivity or accountability.

The 4-Day Workweek

At the end of 2023, the Four-Day Work Week report was published by The Josh Bersin Company and Worktime Reduction Center of Excellence. Here are some of the conclusions:

• Double-digit productivity increase.
• Workers get sick less often and stay in their jobs longer.
• Customers are happier with the service.
• Employees feel more relaxed and energized.
• Hiring new people is more manageable, and the old ones stick around more.

Now, other studies and trials back up these claims.

For example, 61 companies in the U.K., totaling 2,900 employees, participated from June to December 2022 in the world’s most extensive four-day workweek trial to date.

Here are some of the findings:

• 39% of employees were less stressed.
• 71% of employees had reduced levels of burnout at the end of the trial.
• Anxiety, fatigue, and sleep issues decreased, while mental and physical health improved.
• 60% of employees found an increased ability to combine paid work with care responsibilities.
• 62% of workers reported it more accessible to combine work with social life.
• Companies’ revenue stayed broadly the same over the trial period, rising by 1.4% on average.

By the time the trial ended, of the 61 companies that participated, 56 were continuing with the four-day week (92%), with 18 confirming the policy is a permanent change.

Similar experiments in Belgium, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have yielded equally impressive results—read more remote work statistics.

Conclusions

Whatever the future holds, one thing is sure: flexibility and accountability will shape how we work.

Whether the future will bring more personalization in our ways of working depends a lot on how accountable we are.

This means it’s up to us to make this vision of flexible working come true.

The tools for personalization are here, allowing each employee and team to find the best work conditions for them. Technology has changed; now it’s time for a change in mindset and culture. For many, it won’t feel easy.

At the end of the day, cultures that prioritize people will adapt, thrive, and succeed.